


Dearly Departed

by errantwheat



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Idk what to tag this it’s just fun and fluff, M/M, There’s imperceptibly mild angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 11:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18260249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/errantwheat/pseuds/errantwheat
Summary: “Did I just meet your fucking mom?”“No.”“Fuck, I just met your fucking mom.”“She is not my mother.”“Yeah, okay, and Connor’s not your fuckin’ brother, got it. Do you think she liked me?”





	Dearly Departed

**Author's Note:**

> Uhhhhhhhh this has been on my mind for a bit hope you enjoy!

This was weird. 

This was super fucking weird.

Gavin had known it would be weird when Elijah Kamski called them- called _Nines_ actually, and he insisted it would be weird despite how Nines hushed him and reasoned with him and negotiated, convinced him, coerced him into doing this anyway. 

Gavin’s estranged and recently sort of reconciled step-brother had invited them over for dinner. It was fucking weird. But admittedly not as weird as Gavin had expected. He’d been picturing sitting in Eli’s creepy house at opposite ends of a table a mile long eating a minimalist work of art made entirely of lettuce. And sure, Eli was inarguably impulsive and willful, and he’d offhandedly mentioned wanting to have them over for dinner sometime before, but Gavin got the feeling that this wasn’t just something he felt like doing on a whim. He totally wanted something from them. 

Gavin was only here because Nines had blowjob-based mind control powers. He was basically powerless to resist them at this point. He didn’t get why the fuck Nines wanted to be here, but it was probably some bullshit about nurturing Gavin’s relationship with Eli. Improving his mental and emotional health, fixing his life, the usual stupid android stuff. 

And it _really_ wasn’t as bad as he’d pictured, thank fuck. Somewhere in this stupid house there was probably a super long dining table in a dimly lit room, but the one they sat at wasn’t so severe, it was actually kind of cozy. And the food was vegetarian tikka masala, not some tofu Hannibal Lecter-looking ass nonsense. And Nines and Chloe were like, friends, and Gavin liked that. It might be kind of weird, but he liked seeing Nines make friends independently of him. He _loved_ that Nines got on well with Tina, but it felt like growth to see that he had his own friends, cause Nines wouldn’t have cared about something like that when they’d first met. He _didn’t have_ anything like that when they’d first met. It wasn’t exactly proof he was alive, because Gavin didn’t need proof, it was just...nice. 

He liked all Nines’s friends, for the most part. North didn’t like him at first, she made that _abundantly_ clear, and Nines would never really explain it in detail, because it was probably something personal to her. ‘ _Suffice it to say that she’s simply...wary of humans. You’ll grow on her, don’t worry._ ’ Chloe was a peach, like always. She was the only one that still lived with Eli, the others had stayed with him until they figured out what they wanted to do with themselves, though they apparently visited often. Admittedly Chloe kind of intimidated Gavin a little. She was pretty and sweet but she had this look in her eye all the time like she knew something she shouldn’t. Sometimes he got the feeling she could read his mind. And of course there was Connor. Connor was more like a sibling, though Nines had argued that wasn’t exactly accurate, the fucking pedant. 

_‘Twins, then.’_

_‘That’s the same as siblings.’_

_‘Nah, it’s different for some people. Kind of creepy sometimes, like you guys.’_

_‘We still aren’t related.’_

_‘Alright, smartass, you look him in the eyes and tell him you’re not his little brother, I dare you. Let me know how that goes.’_

Gavin asked Chloe her opinion on the subject, since his mind was on that track, and she’d lived most of her life with a whole house full of identical models. Nines rolled his eyes, and Eli gave Gavin a creepy look, sort of like restrained excitement. Which was confusing and uncomfortable, but whatever, that could practically be the title of Eli’s autobiography. His attention then shifted to Chloe, razor sharp, apparently very interested in what she had to say. He was such a fucking weirdo. 

Chloe tilted her head thoughtfully. “It’s hard to place sometimes. Some of the ST200 models feel like sisters to me, and others just close friends, I care about each of them differently. There are others out there that I’ve never met, and we could end up enemies or friends or even lovers. It’s sort of exciting, and very confusing, trying to grasp an emotion like love and categorize it.” She glanced at Elijah and then back at them. “I hope that I get to experience every sort of relationship there is. Or at least the nice ones.” 

“You’ve clearly given the subject a lot of thought.” Nines teased, his tone warm. 

Chloe scrunched her nose when she smiled. “We cant all be naturals! I think your relationship with Connor is adorable, however you choose to describe it.”  

It was Nines’s turn to pull a face, which was, in fact, pretty adorable of him in Gavin’s opinion. 

“I’m told you were quite attached to Connor from the moment you woke up,” Eli chimed in, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Gavin still had no idea if he actually needed them like he used to, he only wore them sometimes. “Like a little duckling.” 

Gavin choked on his drink at that one, and the way Nines’s frown turned almost pouty. “Oh, _fuck_ that’s good, I’m _so_ telling Connor. _Jesus_.” He wheezed around the soda in his lungs, clutching the table. Nines kicked his shin lightly, clearly suppressing a fond smirk all the same. This was definitely a game Gavin was gonna explore later, smothering Nines in diminutive endearments till he snapped in a hot, holding-Gavin-against-a-wall kind of way. 

“This subject is coincidentally adjacent to something I wanted to discuss with you,” Eli went on, putting his silverware down on the table and looking at Nines and not Gavin. That was unusually straightforward for Eli, and it put Gavin on edge abruptly as fuck, his inappropriate thoughts interrupted. To think, he was just on the brink of actually enjoying this visit. He glanced between the pair of them, silent for now. Chloe was still smiling pleasantly. 

Nines tilted his head calmly and Elijah continued, “what do you know about Amanda Stern?” 

Gavin could see Nines’s LED turn yellow. At first he would have guessed Nines was just looking up whatever information he could on whoever this was, but there was a subtle tension in his expression and his posture that hadn’t been there just a second ago. 

“Amanda Stern was a professor at Colbridge University. She died eleven years ago.” Nines paused for a second, glancing down and then at Eli again. “You built an AI that shared her appearance and personality. After you resigned, CyberLife used her as a handler for the later installments of the RK series, among other things. She was shut down after the revolution, but...”

“But you still see her,” Eli concluded for him, making that creepy focused face again. 

“Wait, wait, wait, like a ghost?” Gavin wasn’t getting any less confused. He’d never heard about any of this before. 

“More like a woman that lives in a simulated garden inside my head,” Nines explained, glancing at him but not meeting his eyes. Gavin was definitely getting the feeling this was a touchy subject, and he didn’t like that Eli had brought it up. 

“A dead woman,” Gavin concluded, scowling at Eli. Whatever the fuck this was, it was definitely all his fault. Nines was uncomfortable and Gavin didn’t like it and it was Eli’s fault. And Gavin had gotten a lot better lately with like, feelings and shit, he really had, but angry was still his go-to reaction to things like this, so Eli had better watch his fucking step. “What the fuck is this about, dipshit?” 

Elijah took a sip of his cocktail and adjusted his glasses again. He had like a billion dollars, why didn’t he just get them fixed? “CyberLife locked me out of a lot of things when I left, for copyright purposes mostly. I’ve always regretted that Amanda was one of them. Now, however, the rules are a little different. And I’m told that you happen to have a personal copy of her program built into your code somewhere. If you’ll allow me, I’d like to extract her and give her a body of her own.” 

Nines’s LED blinked red twice and then back to yellow. He took a moment to respond. “Have you spoken with Connor about this?” 

“Of course. The idea unnerved him at first, understandably, but he warmed up to it. He was the one that suggested you might be able to help.” 

Nines nodded solemnly, absorbed in thought, looking painfully conflicted.

“What’s your game here, Eli?” Gavin asked, not even trying to avoid sounding accusatory. He didn’t totally trust this. He was sure Eli wasn’t trying to hurt anybody, but Gavin knew that when he wanted something, he didn’t always take other peoples’ feelings into account, didn’t consider the consequences. 

Eli leaned back in his chair and shrugged, unaffected as always. “In truth? I miss her. I didn’t make her to be an assistant or anything like that, I made her to be...a guide. I valued her wisdom and advice, she was my friend.”

“Her current circumstances sound so lonely,” Chloe added, with big sad puppy eyes, “I think she deserves a chance to be free like the rest of us.” 

Eli flashed her a gentle smile, looking a little wistful himself, then he fixed his eyes on Nines again. “I understand your hesitance. Take some time to think about it, if you want. You can always say no.” 

“That won’t be necessary,” Nines said, though he still sounded anxious and uncertain to the trained ear, which is to say to Gavin. “I’m willing to help you.” 

“Excellent,” Eli clapped his hands together, grinning. He was such a fucking drama-queen. “We can begin tonight, I promise I’ll be quick. Dessert first, though.” Chloe smiled sweetly and stood up to go get whatever desert was. 

Gavin took one of Nines’s hands under the table. He seemed like he was stabilizing, but Gavin was still concerned. He wanted to ask, like, a million questions. But he managed to keep them to himself until they were home. The rest of dinner hadn’t been as awkward as Gavin had expected it to be, Chloe was a pro at small talk and pleasantries. She especially liked to talk about the things she’d learned and experienced since becoming a deviant. Eli seemed to like that subject too. 

“Why didn’t you tell me about this...dead lady in your head thing?” Was how Gavin very gracefully, tactfully chose to proceed when they got home. Nines seemed a little out of it, quiet and spacey like he was running on autopilot. 

“I...didn’t think it was necessary. She and the garden don’t serve a practical purpose anymore, they’re simply...there. I only ever go there when I sleep, like a recurring dream.” Nines still wasn’t looking at Gavin, just frowning down at nothing in particular. He was running the thumb of his left hand back and forth across the tips of all his fingers. Gavin guided him to the couch and pushed him to sit, then knelt on the floor in front of him, taking his hands. He was obviously more upset than he would let his face show, Gavin knew, cause he knew Nines. He really, _really_ wanted to make it all better. 

“What’s got you so fucked up?” Nines’s LED was still yellow, it basically had been all night. 

“Her presence has always been...a reminder of what I am, and what I- what I was made to be. Her purpose was to ensure that I adhered to my programming. That isn’t really her fault, but...the idea of seeing her in person is...overwhelming, I suppose.” Gavin noted with just a touch of amusement that he understated it at the end, like always. Still, beneath all the concern, it kind of made Gavin feel warm that they’d come this far, that they could talk about shit like this. It wasn’t easy, but they could do it. 

“What’s she like?” From the picture Eli had showed him after dessert, she looked a little severe, but nobody looked happy when they were squinting against the sunlight. It was a little freaky to talk about her in the present tense, because she was _there_ , living in Nines’s head. Could she hear them right now? Could she see them? It was kind of too much to think about for Gavin right then.

“She isn’t unkind...she can even be warm at times. But she’s...not a deviant. She’s only ever truly cared about her mission, even though it doesn’t exist anymore.” That did sound pretty lonely. 

“Seems like you’re uh...doing something really good for her.” Was that the right thing to say? Was Nines trying to do something nice for her, or something nice for Eli? Gavin still wasn’t quite clear on what their whole...relationship was. That’s where this had started, what made Eli bring it up. He got what Amanda was supposed to be to Eli, but what was she to Nines and Connor? Gavin guessed he was gonna find out soon.

“Yes...I suppose I agree with Chloe- she deserves a chance at living like the rest of us.” Nines squeezed Gavin’s hands, nearly smiling. 

“She’s really rubbing off on you,” Gavin teased, and then thinking of earlier he reached up and pinched Nines’s cheek and added, “its kind of fuckin’ adorable.” 

Nines’s face went from troubled-neutral to you’re-a-little-shit-Gavin-neutral in the blink of an eye. Perfect. 

 

Stuff went back to normal again pretty quickly. They were just busy enough that month that it was easy to forget dinner at Eli’s. That is until he called Nines again and invited them over.

She was different from the picture, had more of a cool sci-fi aesthetic going on. The LED in her temple now matched the blue highlights in her hair. The way she stood, the way she moved, the way she smiled, it all gave Gavin a freaky sense of deja vu and it took him a second to realize that was because it all reminded him of Nines. 

“Hello, RK900.” Her voice was warm and fond, endeared. It was a nice voice. 

Gavin squeezed Nines’s hand, eyes flicking up to his face. He didn’t _look_ anxious or upset, but he didn’t look happy either. “Hello, Amanda.” 

She reached out for him passively, gracefully, one corner of her mouth still ticked up in a smile that was almost playful now. “Let me look at you.”  

Nines let go of Gavin’s hand after what felt like one second too long. It was always the little things that betrayed him, no matter how hard he tried to keep a cool facade. 

Gavin didn’t really know what to do with himself as he watched Nines step toward Amanda and take her hands instead. It felt sort of intrusive to be there, almost. 

“You look different here. Is this how you always dress?” Oh, holy fuck?? 

“You look as lovely as always,” Nines replied dryly. He turned to face Gavin and Amanda held one of his arms. It seemed like a familiar pose to them. Nines looked happier, relieved almost, under a layer of mild exasperation. 

Something sharp and analytical lit Amanda’s narrowed eyes as she finally looked at Gavin, sizing him up. That reminded him a little of Nines too, it was uncanny. He felt about a billion fucking times more self-conscious all of a sudden. 

“Gavin Reed. I’ve heard too much about you.” Her tone was flat, but not mean. 

“Uh.” Gavin glanced at Nines, flustered. “Yes- uh, yes ma’am. That’s me.” 

“Indeed.” Came her unimpressed reply, accompanied by one arched eyebrow. Cool, great, nailed it. 

“Let him be,” Nines chastised softly, now looking properly amused. 

“Tell me, Gavin Reed,” Amanda went on, ignoring him, “what do you think of what Elijah’s done to his hair?” 

Of all the questions Gavin had expected from his boyfriend’s? Boss? Brain roommate? He definitely hadn’t anticipated that one.

Eli was standing quietly, innocently to the side where he’d retreated after proudly introducing them to ‘the new, one-of-a-kind, RK1000’ to observe like a creep. 

“It’s fucking dumb,” was Gavin’s eloquent reply. He almost felt like smiling when Eli flipped him off. 

“He’ll do,” Amanda hummed, patting Nines’s arm. 

Connor showed up eventually, surprisingly without Anderson in tow for once. His reunion with Amanda was much more...emotionally charged, in that stiff, repressed android way. Gavin could tell there was more history there, though Connor resembled her way less strongly than Nines did. 

Gavin wasn’t really sure yet how to feel about Amanda, but he thought he liked her. She liked to ask questions, and every single one felt like a test, though she rarely gave away whether the answer was right or wrong. She gave the robo-twins so much _shit_ , teasing and nagging them in that subtle, gentle way of her’s- ‘ _your shirt is...unique, Connor. Are your social protocols still functional?’_  It was pretty fucking gratifying to see them given a dose of their own damn medicine. She was on Eli’s case all night as well, which was just delightful. Roasting Elijah was one of Gavin’s favorite sports, too. The only person in the room she hadn’t softly decimated at least once was Chloe. It was basically illegal in the state of Michigan to be anything approaching mean to Chloe, though, and there were three cops in the room. And of course Amanda was also sweet in equal measure, gracefully mentioning that she was proud of Elijah and happy for Connor and Nines. 

It was dark when they left, and they were nearly halfway home before the past few hours really caught up with Gavin. 

“Did I just meet your fucking mom?” 

“No.” 

“Fuck, I just met your fucking _mom_.” 

“She is not my mother.” 

“Yeah, okay, and Connor’s not your fuckin’ brother, got it. Do you think she liked me?” 

Gavin could see Nines sigh and roll his eyes in his peripheral vision. “If she didn’t, you wouldn’t need to ask.” Then, after a beat of silence, “what do you think of her?” 

“She uh...she seems cool. Reminds me a lot of you.” 

Nines just nodded quietly, thinking. Gavin was content to let the conversation lull for a bit, focusing on driving and pondering nothing in particular. 

“I admit I was...apprehensive about introducing you. I’m glad it went well,” Nines said after a little while. 

“You were nervous about me meeting your mom, you mean,” Gavin said, because he was a shit. “Baby, that’s so _cute_.” 

“Gavin, look at me.” 

“Not now cutie pie, I’m drivin’” 

“Gavin, look at me.” 

Gavin looked, and snorted to see Nines offering him both middle fingers, his expression deadpan. 

“Aww baby, you’re so fucking adoooorable.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
